ACES ON BRIDGE
After East’s opening bid of one spade, South has something in hand for his overcall of one no-trump. North might now bid game, but he does have terrible spot cards. When he merely invites, South can bid game anyway.
West leads the spade 10, and South sees that he has the top two spades and three hearts, with the club ace providing a sixth trick. South must plan to get his three additional tricks from diamonds, and his only chance is to find the doubleton diamond ace in one opponent’s hand or the other. He must first investigate which opponent has that ace.
Since his side has 26 high-card points between them, there are only 14 points left for East and West. East should have at least 11 of these points to justify his vulnerable opening bid, so he is overwhelmingly likely to hold the missing ace.
So, South wins the first trick with the spade queen and enters dummy with a heart to lead the first diamond from dummy. East plays the diamond nine, and South wins with his king. He must now play back a low diamond and contribute a low diamond from the board, hoping that East will be forced to play the ace. When luck is with declarer and East’s ace pops up, South has succeeded in establishing diamonds for a loss of only one trick.
East can return the spade king, but South can win and run for home with nine winners now.
ANSWER: Facing a partner you can trust, the most likely problem you have here is whether to compete beyond three clubs if the opponents find a heart or spade fit at the three-level. Your choice is between a simple raise to three clubs and a two-heart cue-bid to show about a limit raise. I would take the cautious position and let partner take it from there. To do more, I’d need maybe a red king in place of one of the queens.